Nested Leadership: The Interpretation of Organizational Change in a Multicollege System

Eddy, Pamela L

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Nested Leadership: The Interpretation of Organizational Change in a Multicollege System

Eddy, Pamela L

Abstract

College leaders serve important roles as guides for campus understanding during times of change. Within multicollege districts, campus members deal with several levels of leadership, ranging from department chairs, to the college president, to the system chancellor. These leaders may send conflicting messages regarding change, or have competing end goals for change. The research reported here sought to investigate the influence of the system chancellor on change initiatives at the individual colleges within the system. Findings from this investigation concluded that leadership within the system was nested, whereby the overall direction of change came from the chancellor, and was replicated as a change effort on each of the district's campuses. The implementation of the initiative, however, was filtered through the culture of each separate campus, resulting in different interpretations by campus members at each of the separate colleges. Understanding more about the filtering process that change initiatives undergo can aid in increased understanding of what makes certain changes more understood and, ultimately, more successful.